LA is So Clean You Can Eat Off It

The folks over at NotNeutral have released a series of porcelain dinner plates featuring 4 cities that were chosen “for their reputations as gateways, and for the way each is dealing with the effects of agglomeration as its population begins to reach critical mass.” In addition to our lovely city, Shanghai, Cairo, and Berlin were also lucky enough to be plated. About the above NotNeutral writes:

The Los Angeles plate is ringed with freeways. A deep green mass represents Dodger Stadium and Elysian Park, and key buildings in the historic core are highlighted in red. The city, thanks to its youth and love of the automobile, has developed in a singular way unlike the traditional condensed urban cores of east coast cities.

If you want one, they are taking preorders now, although the site says they will be available in early Feb. [Thanks Till]

Cool plate. As to the price, this is a great design and many plates from typical wedding sets are more expensive and considerably more boring. Myself I’d like to buy one of these, mark Clifton’s with a Sharpie and take it with me to Clifton’s so I can plop some mashed potatoes from Clifton’s onto the miniature Clfton’s, time and again. Third floor.

The city, thanks to its youth and love of the automobile, has developed in a singular way unlike the traditional condensed urban cores of east coast cities.

Obligatory history-nerd nitpick: LA’s spread-out development pattern is the result of its early developers’ use of high-speed electric interurban trains to promote the development of outlying parcels of land.

By the time private automobiles became common, LA’s spread-out pattern of horizontal rather than vertical expansion was already well-established. Cars and freeways simply followed patterns already laid out by the Red Cars they eventually supplanted.

Our love affair with cars is the result of our city’s sprawling development, not its cause.

SS Nerd… Thanks for reiterating that little known but basic fact about LA! Sure, the farther, newer suburban monoscapes are car inspired, but much of the city out to Redlands, Santa Ana, Long Beach and into the Valley was railway spurred.

48 bucks is pushing the absurd.

FINALLY, though, someone realizes that Downtown is a critical part of LA, and that the city doesn’t “end” at the 405… or have its’ center at Sunset and San Vicente.